The Silent Pressure

By Sonia Kumar

I have faced it, have you?

Have you felt

The pressure to perform

The need to compete

To be acknowledged

Or else you will be

Belittled and scorned

The silent pressure

If you don’t take it,

You are walking alone

If you don’t do

What everyone is doing

You become the outcast

The odd one,

The one to be ridiculed

The one to be left out

Each time to be

Humiliated, estranged

The standards are set

By some selective few

That who are a success

And who are the have-nots

Those who go through it,

Either they are driven

Or are willing to

Trample and abuse

Anything and everything

Just to stand out

And there are the ones

Who unwillingly follow?

So that they can say

They belong

As they have no choice

Or else they will be called

Outcasts or looked down upon

Sometimes when they rebel

They come back to the fold

Knowing it will be difficult

To walk the path alone,

So they start grudgingly

Follow the ones who lead on

And carry resentment, unhappiness

They are the ones who

Can’t make up their mind

And always follow a path

Which others have to tread on.